Norton Hosting Juneteenth Community Day

2025 Juneteenth (Norton Museum)

(Press Release) West Palm Beach, Florida (June 8, 2026) — Juneteenth offers an opportunity to reflect, to honor traditions and to celebrate.

The Norton Museum of Art plans to do all that from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 20, when it hosts its free annual Juneteenth Community Day.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free. The intergenerational event celebrates freedom and spotlights the African American experience with live musical performances, dance, gallery talks on art by African American artists, storytelling and art-making activities.

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​“Community days are a wonderful opportunity for people to visit the Norton Museum of Art and see all we offer,” said Ghislain d’Humières, the Museum’s Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO. “It’s exciting to welcome friends old and new.”
Visitors to the Norton can expect music at this Juneteenth Community Day, as well as art, dance and spoken word performances.

Highlights of the day include:

• a performance (11 - 11:45 am) by the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, which combines elements of jazz, classical, and progressive rock, peppered with Latin rhythms and soulful outbursts of funk;
• a drum circle (11:15 am and 2 pm) led by Abasi “Manblack” Hanif; Art Wellness Exchange (12:45 pm) led by Ashley Witherspoon;
• a dance performance (12:15 - 1 pm) by Soul Stage Dance Ensemble;
• Spotlight Tours (1:30 and 2 pm) with Tracy Guiteau and Dorotha Lemeh;
• a dance class (1 - 1:45 pm) by Ayize Hanif;
• a panel discussion (1:45-2:30 pm) with Brian Knowles and Ashley Witherspoon;
• a music performance (2:30-3:30 pm) with Jobi;
• and a finale (3:45 pm) by Faith’s Place Drumline.

Docents and the Museum team will host Spotlight Tours to highlight works in the collection by African American artists.

In addition to story time and art projects with guest teaching artist Brian Wood and Teaching Artist Lymari Cuevas in Open Studio, there will be food by The Restaurant at the Norton available for purchase.

The community day comes as the Museum continues Summer at the Norton, during which Palm Beach County residents will receive free admission on Saturdays through September 5. Additionally, city of West Palm Beach residents receive free admission on Saturdays year-round. Free Saturday admission for Palm Beach County residents during Summer at the Norton was made possible by the generosity of the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.
There will be one other special day this summer, the Art Around the World Community Day, noon – 4 pm, Saturday, August 15, which brings a day of creativity and discovery. This family festival includes various programs in the Museum’s galleries celebrating the Norton’s Collection and cultural traditions from around the globe. All ages and ability levels are welcome. Visit www.norton.org for a complete schedule after July 15.

Finally, the Norton’s galleries are filled with exhibitions curated to entertain, educate, and inspire:

• Danielle Mckinney: Shelter — Through October 4. A survey exhibition of paintings spanning the last six years of the artist’s practice. As the 10th artist to be exhibited as part of the Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) exhibition series, Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981) creates artworks that depict her female subjects in private moments of solitude.
• Recognition of Art by Women: In Retrospect — Through September 27. This exhibition honors the past nine Recognition of Art by Women artists as the Norton ushers in its 10th recognized artist, Danielle Mckinney. Featuring artwork by Jenny Saville, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Phyllida Barlow, Klara Kristalova, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Svenja Deininger, Nina Chanel Abney, María Berrío, and Rose B. Simpson, In Retrospect reflects on the series' impact, seizing the opportunity to present a group exhibition that illustrates the breadth of talent the series brought to light. 
• Artists at Work — Through June 21. Through paintings, sculptures, photographs, and more, this installation reveals a sliver of the who, where, and how behind the art. Artists’ portrayals of themselves and others in the act of artmaking accompany depictions of dynamic studios, while examples of artists’ preparatory works illustrate their creative processes.
• That’s Entertainment: Japanese Woodblock Prints and the Art of Leisure — Through July 5. This exhibition presents 31 Japanese woodblock prints by Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 1786 – 1864) and other leading artists of the Edo period (1615 – 1868). On view to the public for the first time since entering the Norton’s Collection, these rarely seen woodblock prints celebrate the creative energy and artistry of Japan’s iconic visual and performing artistic traditions.
• 60 Seconds: Polaroids from the Collection — Through August 16. This exhibition celebrates photography’s signature immediacy, tracing how artists have embraced Polaroids, or instant film, for their ability to produce a unique image in mere moments. 
• Galloping Steed: Celebrating the Year of the Horse in Chinese Paintings — Through August 23. Galloping Steed brings together works by Xu Beihong (1895 – 1953) alongside paintings by He Qingtai (born Louis Antoine de Poirot, France, 1735 – 1813), a French Jesuit artist who served at the court of the Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735 – 1796).
• Cursed Images: Pictures Out of Context — Through November 1. This exhibition features a recent gift of 20th-century vernacular photographs (everyday, amateur snapshots) from the Peter J. Cohen Collection, one of the largest privately held archives of anonymous photographs in the United States. It highlights photographs whose subjects or object relationships evoke a subtle, inexplicable unease.
• Portrait Mode: Self-Reflections from Past, Present, and Future — Through August 16 (art by students).
• Art & Independence: America at 250 — July 4 – December 6. Works from the Norton’s Collection help tell the story of our nation as it marks its 250th anniversary.
• Ralph Coburn: Land, Sea, Sky — July 25 – January 3. Ralph Coburn (American, 1923 – 2018) spent winters in the Miami Beach area from the 1930s through the rest of his long life. The Art Deco aesthetics and architecture inspired his artistic career. This exhibition marks the first Florida Roots project, a series exploring artists whose careers are connected to the stimulating setting of the Sunshine State.